Maria Sharapova made a buttload of money with Sugarpova

In less than a year, Maria Sharapova more than doubled her investment with Sugarpova—a candy company she owns all by herself. Amazingly, folks are willing to pay $5.99 for a bag of candy they could buy at their local drug store for 99 cents.

By the way, until today, you could only get Sugarpova in America—land of the free, home of the financially stupid.

The gummy candy was first marketed in the U.S. in August, reaching 250,000 bags in the first three months, according to Max Eisenbud, Sharapova’s agent at IMG Tennis. He’s forecasting sales of 1 million bags in a year as distribution starts in the U.K., Australia, Japan, Canada, Russia, India and China. Sharapova, who gets as much as $1.10 per bag, said she’s surprised by the success.

“We don’t really have a big budget at all for marketing and advertisement,” the four-time Grand Slam tournament winner said in an interview. “So it’s pretty incredible that the awareness that it has so far is where it is,” said Sharapova, who faces fellow Russian Olga Puchkova in her opening round in Melbourne.

Sharapova’s marketing takes place on social media where she sports 9 million fans on Facebook, many of whom give her free advertising by sharing all those sweet pics.

Take, for example, this most recent one at her launch event in Melbourne.

Facebook

Ah, how cute you guys. 58,309 of you liked Sharapova giving kids early onset diabetes.

See you in hell.